Read Me

Name of creator : Greytale
Title of patch EPISODE : DARKHELL.WAD
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Absolutely important : "You will LOVE these maps, or I have no
imagination worthy of freeware." -- Greytale
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E-MAIL address : greytale@hairball.ecst.csuchico.edu
****** Any questions? Comments? Flames? Do you
despise these maps? Do you like them better
than DOOM itself? If so...
**** ...Without a doubt, feel free to mail me!
Episodes and maps : ALL (Yes, the secret level too!)
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MAP: TITLE OF WAD: LENGTH: FINDING EXIT:
E2 M1 -- Dark Dome Stairs short thinker
E2 M2 -- Grey Halls of Blood medium get them first
E2 M3 -- Holy Moly! very short stay alive, easy exit
E2 M4 -- Forest of Armour medium a linear path
E2 M5 -- Silver Mirror large a good amount of work
E2 M6 --*BEWARE very large pretty hard
E2 M7 -- Ankh Cliffs very large tough
E2 M8 -- Tower of Demons (This really IS a tower!) kill last guy
E2 M9 --*Blood Cells large SECRET LEVEL
* Secret level is accessible by map 6 (Beware), but once you finish the
map 9 secret, you must RETURN to map 6, and find the REAL exit!
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Skill levels supported : * OF COURSE * --With new twists, too.... :)
--In some levels, objects such as
creatures, obstacles and even
KEYS are REARRANGED from skill
level to skill level!
(SEE NOTES BELOW)
DEATHMATCH supported : * OF COURSE *
COOPERATIVE supported : * OF COURSE *
IBM models tested on : **486DX 33Mhz, 8Mb RAM, 512K graphics card,
standard bus, stacker 3.0 running
--Low detail is smooth as silk with the status bar
--High detail is a bit choppy on "Ultra-Violence",
but it's usually like that for regular DOOM levs
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**Pentium 50Mhz, 16Mb RAM, 1M grap. card, loc. bus,
NO stacker, NO doublespace
--PRETTY GODDAMN AMAZING
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Level basis : Completely from scratch
Editor(s) used : DEU 5.21 and BSP 1.1 (binary space partitioner)
(Special thanks to the creators of both
programs; Raphael Quinet and Colin Reed)
Thanks to roach@hairball for his play-testing.
DOOM LOVERS R U L E ! !
Available where? : --> WCARCHIVE.CDROM.EDU (?)
at Doom directory
--> WUARCHIVE.WUSTL.EDU
at /pub/msdos_uploads/games or doom
--> MANY OTHER SITES THAT CARRY DOOM!
Short Level descriptions:
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E2 M1 -- Dark Dome Stairs:
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Your marine begins at the bottom of a dome-like, octagonal staircase, with
the dark sky above him. Slipping in secretly and quietly, if your marine is
careful, he can pick up a rocket launcher without being detected, and blow
several monsters away who have no idea you're there! Enjoy blowing their
guts UP the stairs-- that's right, UP the stairs!
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E2 M2 -- Grey Halls of Blood
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Beginning in a very oddly lit tower, your marine finds himself amidst many
harsh baddies until POOF! He teleports into a long, dark hall that opens up
many dangers for him to explore. If you're afraid of the dark and a few
measly invisible demons, go home and drink some cool-aid. Else, wait until
you get outside, and see the sights.
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E2 M3 -- Holy Moly! there's a lot of baddies!
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Your marine will never forget this map, even if he DOES die.
Pure fun, absolutely as short as it gets, and still an exercise in insanity.
The trick in this huge circle is to use your speed and your BRAINS (not your
trigger-finger) to entice the monsters into bickering about who's claws are
sharper. If your WIT is sharper, you'll survive. If not, start practicing
hitting that "F9, y" finger trick.
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E2 M4 -- Forest of Armour
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If you have DOOM 1.666, you are shit-outta-luck at pumping your armour
beyond 200%. Sorry. I have no idea how to change that.
HOWEVER, for those of you still toting that 1.2 engine, your armour will
reach an interesting amount-- WITHOUT cheating. Don't get lost in the
forest, and most importantly, don't worry if you only get 80% of the items.
There must be 600 helmets out there alone!
But, all doom versions look great for ascending my pin-wheel staircase.
Don't have too much fun, or you'll stop going out on week-ends. :)
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E2 M5 -- Silver Mirror
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After you play this level, the following sentence will make sense:
NO, YOU ARE N O T IN THE SAME PLACE...
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E2 M6 -- BEWARE
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This is the most complicated map I made. It is very detailed, texture-
aligned, and intricate. If you don't like all the other levels, screw them,
and play this one. Of course, I KNOW you won't do that, because YOU love
DOOM! :) Seriously, this level has some interesting details-- look for more
on this particular map (2,6) at the end of this humongous text file.
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E2 M7 -- Ankh Cliffs
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More fun. After slowly making your way up the stonelight heights, you enter
a new definition of danger. Tougher than Beware, but fun with respect to all
the midgrate textures to look through. This one is a ton of thinking, too.
Don't forget to bring your BFG... a little ammo wouldn't hurt, either. :)
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E2 M8 -- Tower of Demons (Replaces Tower of Babel from "The Shores of Hell")
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I decided to REALLY create a tower level, since I saw the name of the map
was "Tower of Babel". I wondered why ID called it that (no offense at all)
because the level wasn't really a tower. Enjoy it.
NOTE: Please ignore the texture sky flash that occurs just as you enter the
tower door. Its cause (FOR THOSE INTERESTED IN KNOWING WHY IT OCCURS)
comes from making a sector, and having he difference between ceiling
and floor heights greater than 540. For instance, with floor height
at 0 and ceiling at 1024, walking into that sector from another one is
likely to cause a flash (crossing the shared linedef).
The sector heights of my tower span a length of 1024; thus the flash.
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E2 M9 -- Blood Cells
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If you catch how simple the design of this level is, you will realize how
much you can do with a DOOM editor. Design took the least amount of time,
while picking textures and editing linedef types and light levels took the
most of my work time.
Personally, my favorite part is the long hall with the lowering marble
statues. If you leave your marine's speed off, and continue to walk forward,
it looks really neat.
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And now the story behind BEWARE.WAD...
** B E W A R E **
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Difficulty of Map : 30 to 40 min. for a very good DOOM player
--Really challenging on Hardest skill
--"Hurt Me Plenty" is almost as hard as
"Ultra-Violent" EXCEPT creatures are both
placed differently and / or ENTIRELY new.
Quick Notes on Gameplay : A very detailed WAD, complete with well-matched
textures, many lifts, many switches and linedefs
to trigger floors and brighten or darken light
levels. Nearly EVERY sector has a tag to SOME
line definition to do SOMETHING! Enjoy the huge
staircase into the deep poison dungeon, the
"Outer Perimeter", the false wall Cove into the
dark prison bars, the beginning "Cross-hair"
lift sectors, the Imp teleportation zone, and a
hell of a lot more!! Beware...
* There are places where a quick-running DOOM hero must "jump"
across gaps between ledges and sectors! By "jump" I mean, hold
down the shift key (or whatever key it is you use to make the
marine run) and boogey across a gap as if it weren't there.
It is only NECESSARY and REQUIRED to do this ONCE in the level.
Other places are merely for fun, or score you added bonuses.
Interesting : * Very long, deep staircase into a poison dungeon that
Features is full of barrels, purgeable creatures, and a few
switches to keep you busy between shells & cells
* Different objects appear on different skill levels:
1. Creatures, decor, bonuses all slightly
differ from skill to skill
2. "Hurt Me Plenty" differs very much from
"Ultra-Violence" -- creatures appear in
different locations, some entirely new
3. Retrieving weapons becomes interesting from
skill to skill as they are placed differently
4. Keys are in different places per each skill level.
* Light levels in nearly every sector can darken or
fill up with light, changing the appearance of each
room, sector and area: trip the correct linedef (with
or without knowing... ;) and you may not recognize
that sector you went through 2 minutes before!
* Over 10 DEATHMATCH startup locations
* Beginning lift creates illusion that there
are sectors on TOP of sectors (which can't occur in DOOM)
* Possibility of achieving each and EVERY Weapon
offered in game, on both DEATHMATCH & 1-player mode:
No more chinsy excuses from authors of Wads who keep the
weapons from you, expecting you to dust a Caco with a
pop-gun or Fist-O-rama!! Screw stuff like that! Your
only chance in THIS wad is to FIND all the weapons!
If they WEREN'T there, you wouldn't be be-waring, you'd
be-RUNNIN'!
* Immense REVERSED teleportation zone which sends creatures
and players all over this huge room--fun on DEATHMATCH
( You can even shoot yourself with )
( your OWN missile! Sorry, your own )
( BFG doesn't hurt you--hehehehehehe )
* Over 670 objects total in Beware.Wad!
(That's including decorations, creatures, teleport exits,
and the like... don't worry; there AREN'T 670 Cacos!!)
* Nearly ALL of the 380 sectors that make up BEWARE are
tagged to some linedef so that they darken by a step,
lift with a switch, brighten as you go, frighten as you
play, and change the whole level's appearance around
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Time allotted for : OVER 150 hours (really). This was my second
creation of map WAD, and I had been fooling around adding and
deleting and fixing and changing it for many
months now. I just spent about an hour or
so each day trying to improve it, and I think
it's definitely a keeper! Enjoy it!
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** Special thanks to the creators of DEU 5.21, IDBSP, and BSP1.1x--all of
these are really wonderful for making workable, interesting DOOM levels
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** B E W A R E **
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THE STORY BEHIND "BEWARE":
You can hear only your breath. This suit isn't much, but it's better than
sucking on the simple nothing that space is made of. A lump in your throat
forms as you recall the silence just before... this. The silence in Grainer's
realization that things were no longer in control... yours, his, or even
McCarter's... maybe not even God's...
And if God's responsible for THIS one, you wonder what IN BEELZEBUB'S name
he was THINKING, and what the MORAL of this horrifying disaster is...
As you float into the ex-space station that was once called ILSA, you recap
everything that you remember--you thank the UAC for making log recorders able
to be hooked up while in an air-tight space suit, and try to describe just
exactly what took place on the Magellan before she went down. You figure,
"If I don't make it, at least what happened will..."
You pause only to secure your feet to ILSA with the G-boots you equipped
yourself with in your spastic frenzy to save your crew.
And with a deep breath, you begin at the beginning... the Light Anomaly--
...everything that happened... those last few minutes... what happened...
to you, Davis, Gary, Grainer: all in a matter of a few measely parsecs,
minutes and adrenaline burning events which you'll never forget...
IF you live through this.
================================== ******* ==================================
Davis: "I'll just be glad when we've completed ILSA. She'll be one hell of a
great station and all, but I'm tired of breathin' man-made air! I
want to get the f*@k off this hunk of tin ship and go home!"
One of the boys: "Hey, Magellan's no hunk!! She's a gem! More than I can
say for Kendra....!"
(Friendly, kind-hearted joking laughter from the tables in the Meal Sector)
Davis: "Cute... Real cute, guys... a gem, huh? How 'bout a mouth FULL of
gems?! My fist'll arrange that! Heh-heh... damn bums..."
(Friendly chuckles and mumbles about Davis from the boys)
Gary: "Earth, huh... you want to go back to Earth?"
Davis: "Hell, yes!.... What, I'd suppose YOU want to live on the station?!"
Gary: "No, no! Not LIVE on ILSA, but at least take an assignment on her!"
Davis: "Gary, you don't even know what ILSA stands for! How can ya say you
want to ensign there? You just stick to being on Captain --YOUR
NAME--'s ship, and MAYBE he won't 'demote your sorry ass'! Heh-heh."
(Laughter from the boys in the Meal Sector)
The Boys: "Ha-ha, Davis. 'Demote your sorry ass'-- nice one."
*** (YOU, the space marine Captain of the UAC ship Magellan enter ***
*** quietly, overhearing the boys' argument) ***
Gary: "Aw, sh*t, Davis... I KNOW what ILSA is all about..."
Davis: "Okay, brainiac, what's the 'I' for? Heh-heh..."
(More chuckles)
Gary: "Okay, very funny... 'I' stands for Interplanetary: can I get a drink
of water, Mrs. Davis? Do I need a bathroom access card??"
(Rolling against Davis with the laughter)
Davis: "Cute; It just so happens that General McCarter named his daughter
ELSA, and thass why they call the new station that, Gare..."
You: "For BOTH of your information, Davis... Gary.... McCarter's WIFE is, or
rather WAS named Elsa before she died. The station's name just came
out that way, and it was kind of nice that it resembled Tom McCarter's
wife's name... ILSA... Interplanetary Linking Satellite Archive. Elsa
was a hell of a lady, or so I hear from old Tommy... I saw her picture
once; lemme tell you-- she was drop-dead gorgeous. Tom said her dream
was to make information from planet to planet accessible to all--to
somehow link information that was worldwide right through space. A
sort of Planetary Internet, I guess.
Look, I don't want to be a kill-joy, and I never met her,
but I want this station to be a success."
(Pause. The crew is somewhat struck by your sudden sappiness.)
Davis: "Aw, Cap why do you have to go and get sappy on us? I ain't never
seen you give us no "speech" before like this?"
You: "Jesus, Davis, I'm NOT opening up a 'let's explore our feelings'
session, I just think we ought to give McCarter's wife-God rest her
soul-some respect! This station is not just ANOTHER assignment,
Davis... McCarter's been our Big Sarge for a little less than two
hands worth of fingers to count in years!"
One of the boys: "Cap, you know Davis can't count that high...."
(Laughter)
You: "Heh-heh... Davis, I know you want off this assignment... I mean, I
understa... I... Davis, what is your wife's nam..."
Davis: "...Oh, Kendra, Captain --YOUR NAME--, Kendra..."
The Boys : "the GEM...."
You: "..RIGHT! Kendra. Anyway, I know she's probably as anxious to see
you as you are to see her, bu.."
=============================================================================
(A sudden wisp of light flashes through the Meal Sector, blinding the entire
room of crew members for a second, as if a beam of light with the intensity
of a small sun had rolled over the area. The ship is lightly shaken.)
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Davis: "What th..."
The Boys: "Hey.. Wh.. Holy Sh... Ay..."
(The lights dim slightly during the confusion...)
Voice over your communicator: "Captain..."
You: "Status, Mr. Grainer! What happened?"
Voice of Grainer: "Captain, I'm not sure... for a moment, we had something
that basically resembled a... well a... (long pause)"
You: "Go on, Mark..."
Voice of Grainer: "Well... I hope you know what I mean Captain, if I say
we had what resembled a.. 'power surge'."
You: "A powe.. a sur..., Mark you can't be serious..."
Voice of Grainer: "Aye Sir, I know it's 99.9 percent impossible after 2207,
when Professor and scientist James D. Jen..."
You: "..I know, Grainer... James D. Jenkins solved the problem of surges,
anomalies and other power abnormalities greater than 2048-ei and
less than 4194304-ei through a specific formula to control the
current and source of energy... But how, then did th..."
Voice of Grainer: "I don't know, sir."
(You are not amused. What seemed to have happened HASN'T HAPPENED for nearly
one-hundred and fifty YEARS!!! How could a surge occur on a spaceship?
A couple hundred years ago, this was no big thrill, but on a spaceship that
packs the power of over 1200000-ei, a SURGE makes a laser blast look pretty
pathetic in terms of brightness... AND destructive force!)
(The ship is rocked once more, the flash and shake even brighter this time.)
You: "STATUS, GRAINER!! HANSON, RAENER, BOYER--BRIDGE!"
(Your bridge crew scrambles for the compression lifts...)
Voice of Grainer: "CAPTAIN, WE'VE LOST AUTO-PILOT! LOOKS LIKE LUNCH IS OVER!
I NEED SOME HANDS DOWN HERE! CLASS 3 ELECTRICAL DISTUR-
BANCE ON THE BOARDS!!! REPEAT-- ASSISTANCE REQUIRED!!"
You: "GARY, DAVIS, ATTEND TO MR. GRAINER IN ENGINEERING!"
(Frantically, as the preceding dialogue overlapped generously, you rush your
way through the dimly lit ship, up a lift to the bridge.)
(Helmsman Erikson meets you just as you arrive from the lift, reporting the
ship's situation in respect to ILSA...)
Erikson: "ERIKSON REPORTING, SIR. ILSA STATION HAS UNDERGONE SOME MASSIVE
POWER ANOMALIES... EQUIVALENT TO EXPLOSIVE BLASTS OF RANDOM ENERGY
THAT HAVE THROWN IT OUT OF ORBIT AROUND MARS! SHE'S DRIFTING."
You: "Are we still maintaining orbit, and if so, can we pursue ILSA?"
Erikson: "CAPTAIN...."
(HE GRABS YOUR ARM)
You: "What? What... What is it?!"
Erikson: "The Magellan is no longe...."
Voice of Grainer: "CAPTAIN! THE SHIP'S NOT RESPONDING! WHAT THE HELL
HAPPENED TO DAVIS AND GARY?!! THIS CAN'T BE HAPPENING!
THERE IS N O FUCKING WAY THE SHIPS DRIVER CONTROL COULD
HAVE BEEN LOST.... CAPTAIN, YOU'LL HAVE NO CONTROL OVER
THE SHIP FROM THE BRIDGE... I... OH SHIT, OH SHIT....
ONLY SIX MINU...
(No breath)
--your name--....
..... There's nothing more we can do... We're headed
directly toward Mars' atmosphere... there's not even
enough time to reach the shuttles before Magel...
You: "The H E L L there ISN'T MISTER!!! YOU GET YOUR ASS IN GEAR,
OR I'LL DEMOTE YOUR PATHETIC ASS!!! MOVE IT!!!
M O V E your ASS!! GO, GO!! MOVE A S S !!!"
Over intercom: "DOCKING--- ALL STATIONS, ALL FLOORS, THIS IS EVAC 5,
THIS IS NO FUCKING DRILL, AND I WILL NOT, REPEAT N O T
REPEAT THIS MESSAGE!!! DOCKING.... MOVE NOW.... EVAC 5
E V A C 5--- N O W !!"
-----
(In a whirlwind of commotion, in an emergency evac-situation never even
practiced in UAC Marine/Cadet training school, you attempt every effort to
get your crew the hell off the Magellan before it's all over. The G-forces
alone would smash the crew's bones like grapevines if the Magellan entered
the atmosphere of Mars without proper entry.
The biggest problem remains... who will survive, and who will not... as you
barked out the EVAC 5 order, you knew that not everyone would make it off
the ship in time: ... Jesus... only four minutes left after the crew was
notified and in gear. Record time for carrying out a full ship order-- one
minute, fifty-six seconds.)
Dammit, though, it's not enough! Oh, Christ why my crew...
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*** You're not sure if Davis made it..... --------------- (player 2)
*** You're not sure if Erikson made it... --------------- (player 3)
*** You're not sure if Grainer made it... --------------- (player 4)
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But...
Unfortunately, you know YOU made it.
Allowing as many crew members per shuttle as possible, you jettisoned your-
self with the garbage cell, full-clad in gravity boots, a space suit and
helmet, complete with a 4-day air supply, and three meals of food--hopefully
your crewmates will navigate to Mars, relay the disaster to UAC, and send
a patrol to find you for the 50 parsecs you could possibly travel with the
damn garbage unit.
You surmise that your chances of being rescued are grim. You know one thing
though... you'll be sure to mention that record-timing full-ship EVAC in
your log. Damn proud. Damn sorry. You hope to God somehow all of the
crew made it somewhere, anywhere, anyplace, anyplanet safely.
You'll have a lot of time to record what happened in the log recorder while
you're on the garbage un...
But WAIT!!
The garbage unit... of COURSE! Well, how the hell ELSE would it get
clea... (!) You suddenly remember: Every garbage unit HAS to have a homing
device to eventually be RECEIVED by a space station, and flown to Jupiter,
where a WM SpaceBlock can hold the refuse! So, you don't even have to
WORRY about being sent for--you'll just hang on the the garbage cell, float
on its sub-sub-warp power to the nearest..... space.. sta...
(In the distance, a glowing, randomly flashing space station ILSA looms,
drifting further and further from orbit around Mars.)
Oh.... shit.
The nearest space station is... ILSA.
WELL, but.... they... well they WOULDN'T have the GARBAGE units running if..
...if, uh... the... station wasn't.. running, right?
Right?
Um,.... right?
Terrified, you wonder what anomalies occurred in the ILSA station....
You KNOW you'll eventually land there...
You KNOW the garbage unit MUST be working since they were building...
You KNOW because you were just THERE about 48 hours ago!
*** Now, if you could only REMEMBER where the small armouries all about
ILSA were... you knew they were preparing the station to be able to
defend itself. You just KNOW it's through some UAC door, at the top
of the cross-hair lift...
You cock your head back as well as you can to see your unstable Magellan
behind you. From this distance, you couldn't possibly make out if any
shuttles were anywhere near, or even jettisoned.
In a flash of red and white flame, your ship is lost, and you eventually
lose sight of the largest pieces of wrecka... Oh... Oh my god....
You see the tortured remains of Ensign Gary floating through the darkness of
space, limp and lifeless. It was just plain unjust for him to have to die
this way. He was young, and would've been a great asset to ILSA...
You: "F*@k.........
I'm demoting my OWN sorry ass..."
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